July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
When Will the Chinese People Be Free?
Rising levels of wealth and schooling make it highly likely that China will be a "Partly Free" country by 2015 and a "Free" one ten years after that.
Articles
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
How Will China Democratize?
No one should underrate the will and skill that the ruling Chinese Communist Party will put into keeping its grip on power.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
China’s Long March to Freedom
China is gradually changing. In the coming years, the pursuit of individual dignity and human rights will increasingly come to the fore.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I)
The Editors’ introduction to the first of two clusters on “The Democracy Barometers.”
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I): Authoritarian Nostalgia in Asia
East Asia’s “third-wave” democracies are in distress, and the economic success of nondemocratic regimes in the region creates a tough standard for comparison.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I): Formal versus Informal Institutions in Africa
Survey data indicate that Africans support democracy and its formal institutions, but also point to the importance of the informal realm, particularly when formal institutions fail to meet popular expectations.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I): The Rise of Populism and the Left in Latin America
By world standards, Latin Americans ideologically are slightly to the right. But their attitudes are moving leftward, a trend with potential implications for democratic stability in the region.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Democracy Barometers (Part I): Learning to Support New Regimes in Europe
After a decade and a half, how do citizens of postcommunist Europe now feel toward their new governing regimes?
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has been traditionally depicted as a place where formal institutional rules are largely irrelevant-yet in the past fifteen years these rules have come to matter, and this trend is unlikely to reverse.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
The Decline of the African Military Coup
Since the early 1990s, many African countries have undergone political liberalization, and so far this trend has been accompanied by a significant drop in the incidence of military coups.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Communism’s Many Legacies in East-Central Europe
Democracy is facing hard times in the region, but the shape of the problems varies according to the differing informal legacies of communism in individual countries.
July 2007, Volume 18, Issue 3
Democracy Contra Politics
A review of A World Beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State by Pierre Manent.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Toward Muslim Democracies
About two-thirds of the world's Muslims live under governments chosen through competitive elections. The remaining third lives mostly in the Arab world, a region that poses the hardest challenges for democratization.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
The Challenge of Closely Fought Elections
Closely fought elections are often fraught with conflict, splitting societies asunder. How can democracy survive such rough and close contests?
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Six Decades of Independence
By most theoretical accounts, Indian democracy should not even exist. Yet, despite serious challenges, it shows signs of enduring and even deepening.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Economic Growth and Political Accommodation
So far, economic liberalization and globalization have not served to undermine India's democracy. Indeed, they may even be strengthening it.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: Civil Society Versus Corruption
Pervasive corruption hampers India's democracy, yet anticorruption movements may be helping to improve governmental accountability.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
India’s Unlikely Democracy: The Rise of Judicial Sovereignty
India's courts have been playing a growing role in the country's political life. Yet even as judicial interventions have become more sweeping, the principles undergirding their legitimacy have become less clear.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
A Wake-Up Call in Afghanistan
Much has been achieved both in the war against the Taliban and in the larger struggle to create a democratic Afghanistan, but dire problems remain.
April 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2
Venezuela: Crowding Out the Opposition
President Hugo Cháez's regime demonstrates how a public desire for change plus state resources can be exploited to undermine democracy.